Bulls forward Jalen Smith’s name surfaced in reporting on Wednesday by Dan Woike of The Athletic, connecting Smith to the Los Angeles Lakers, as a trade target for the storied franchise that has officially completed its franchise face transition from forward LeBron James to guard Luka Doncic.
From a Bulls front office point of view, it is encouraging that Smith is creating a trade market for his services as the franchise navigates its roster-building options in the Bulls' lead front office executive, Bryson Graham’s inaugural season at the helm of the franchise’s basketball operations department.
However, after an initial run of Bulls front office transactions, led by Graham, there are some fans wanting more in terms of the types of player acquisition returns coming back to the Bulls.
The Bulls are at a roster-building inflection point where they need to acquire long-term value in their transactions as opposed to executing superficial flexibility moves.
In this context, the Lakers’ interest in Smith is nice, but is it also an opportunity that will truly deliver the Bulls either a long-term player or surplus draft capital to progress the franchise’s rebuild to winning basketball?
Exploring the Lakers’ trade space
In terms of players, the Lakers are likely to have the most motivation in trading forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who holds a $13.3 million player option for the 2027-28 NBA season, yet at age 27, Vanderbilt is largely no different than acquiring Nic Claxton in the context of the Bulls’ rebuild.
Vanderbilt, at best, will be a serviceable rotation player who will eat minutes without providing a truly elite basketball contribution.
The Lakers also could offer forwards Jake LaRavia and Dalton Knecht, who together aggregate outgoing salary comparable to Jalen Smith’s expiring contract value of $9.4 million. However, LaRavia is a non-shooter, and Knecht is a regressed shooter after two NBA seasons. How do either of these players help Caleb Wilson?
An intriguing option the Bulls should consider if they do engage the Lakers in serious trade talks involving Smith is guard Jaden Hardy, whom the Lakers acquired via trade during the 2026 NBA offseason.
Entering the 2026-27 NBA season, Hardy will play in his age 24 season and has two years left on his current contract at $6 million per year, and the 2027-28 year of his contract is a non-guaranteed club option according to Spotrac.
Hardy is a bench rotational player who has the potential to provide great value on his current contract as a high-volume second-unit shooter. In his career, Hardy shoots 38.6% on 8.6 three-point attempts per 36 minutes, according to Basketball Reference.
Jaden Hardy is the best bet for a Bulls trade return for the Lakers because the franchise is likely not making an aggressive trade offer on a rotational player like Smith and doesn’t have a tradeable first-round draft pick for the rest of the 2020s.
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